In perhaps the most stunning upset of the midterm elections, Scott Colom, a Democrat from Mississippi, narrowly edged out Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican, according to The Associated Press. The victory came after a vote count that extended more than a week after the Nov. 3 election.
Mr. Colom will become the first Black senator from Mississippi elected since Reconstruction, after Blanche K. Bruce, who was born into slavery, went to Washington more than 150 years ago.
Here are five things to know about Mr. Colom.
1. He is a prosecutor with a family history in politics.
Mr. Colom, 43, is a district attorney from Columbus, Miss., a city of roughly 23,000 people near the border with Alabama. He won that office by unseating a nearly 30-year incumbent in 2015, and has been re-elected twice since then.
Mr. Colom’s mother was a judge, and his father, Wilbur Colom, is an attorney who served on Ronald Reagan’s transition team and ran as a Republican for state treasurer in 1987. Mr. Colom has two daughters with his wife and attends a Baptist church, according to his campaign website.
2. His election breaks a barrier that has stood for well over a century.
Mr. Colom is the first Black senator elected in more than 150 years from Mississippi, where Black residents make up 37 percent of the population — the highest proportion of any state. He is also the first Democrat to win a Senate race in the state since 1982, the year that John C. Stennis, a segregationist Democrat, ran for the last time.
Mr. Colom will take the seat once held by Hiram Revels, the nation’s first Black senator, who was elected in the Reconstruction era. The senator-elect did it by winning in a state that President Trump carried by nearly 23 points just two years ago.
3. He campaigned on high costs — and went viral for it.
Mr. Colom’s underdog bid attracted little national attention until October, when one of his campaign ads went viral. The video blasted Ms. Hyde-Smith for saying that voters “have so many proteins to choose from” in response to a local television anchor’s comment on the rising price of beef.
“Pick another protein?” a man asks in the ad as he flips a burger. “I’d rather pick another senator instead.”
The ad helped Mr. Colom inject energy into his campaign at a crucial moment. The main super PAC for Democratic Senate candidates spent $1.2 million on advertising for him shortly after the advertisement first ran, and added another $1 million later in the race.
4. He almost became a federal judge, but Hyde-Smith blocked him.
Ms. Hyde-Smith was defeated by a man who, if not for her, would likely have been on the bench rather than on the campaign trail.
Three years ago, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. nominated Mr. Colom to a federal district court in Mississippi, and the state’s senior senator, Roger Wicker, a Republican, supported the move. But Ms. Hyde-Smith killed the nomination, objecting to Mr. Colom’s support for transgender rights and past spending on his behalf by a political action committee funded by George Soros, a billionaire donor to progressive causes.
5. He sought bipartisan appeal.
Mr. Colom reached out to both Republicans and Democrats with promises that he would work across the aisle. He also spoke about high costs, his opposition to the Iran war, and his work prosecuting violent criminals.
On the campaign trail, he emphasized direct communication with voters. He held a series of “Where’s Cindy?” town halls to draw attention to his Republican opponent’s low profile in the state, parked a food truck outside small-town city halls and worked the line of attendees at a Trump rally in the final days before the election.
“I knew we could win,” Mr. Colom said at a news conference on Nov. 4. “I knew that there were voters out there who loved our state more than they loved a political party.”
Campbell Robertson and Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.
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